Sawyer

Believe it or not, we still haven’t left the zoo. Recall that the day began on Little Puffer, moved on to the Easter egg hunt, and then continued with two spins around the antique merry-go-round.

It’s difficult to get a good action photo on my phone, but a few turned out well enough to share:

Yes, he’s riding a cat:

He’s also endlessly curious:

And very happy with his time on the merry-go-round:

After a quick lunch, the three of us walked out to visit the family farm when he saw this:

And then he said, “Circle, rectangle, square!” I still can’t believe he noticed it, for one, and then pulled it all together.

On top of that, the day is only half done! I still have a post to do about our trip to the beach later that night.

Sawyer was parched from his ride on Little Puffer. He asked for his juice, and then wandered around the dandelions. I love this picture:

Abby and I managed to convince Sawyer to head over to the Easter egg hunt. That’s no small feat, he had to make it through the playground and swings to get there:

His ever-present tongue:

It was an absolute madhouse at the site of the Easter egg hunt, but I managed to get Sawyer around a logjam and into a wide open space full of eggs. He quickly figured out the game:

There was supposed to be a limit on the number of eggs per child, but Abby and I saw some kids with 20 or more. Luckily Sawyer reached a reasonable limit, one governed by the number of eggs he could hold in two hands:

Abby showed him the wonders of carrying his five eggs in one bag:

Seriously crowded:

Sawyer was quite happy with himself, which made Abby pretty happy too:

Next, Abby helped crack the eggs to show Sawyer the prizes inside:

He was a little confused at first:

Ohhh, I see:

And thus began the cycle of taking his eggs out:

Only to put them right back in, one-by-one. And no, he never stopped looking for more eggs:

Judging by how much he enjoyed this one, it’s a good thing that Abby has another egg hunt planned for the playgroup on Friday!

Last Saturday morning, the Golden Gate Mothers Group held their annual Easter Egg Hunt at the zoo. By now, everyone ought to know that no visit to the zoo is complete without a ride on Little Puffer. It’s a Sawyer Truitt favorite.

Along the way to Little Fuffer, as he called it, he saw a giraffe:

And Sparkles the penguin:

Sparkles really likes people.

Sawyer and I were fortunate to be first in line for the first train ride, so I grabbed the first seat behind the engine (for future reference, opt for a car or two back, otherwise be ready for the whistle to spray water in your face). Here we are waiting for the ride to start:

I’d say he’s pretty excited about this:

Here’s the view from Abby’s perspective:

Two of the many peacocks that roam the zoo grounds can be seen in this video, one at the beginning and one at the end. Here’s why: the conductor throws them treats as Little Puffer passes by:

Here’s the view from LP:

Abby took this picture of me and Sawyer while I was taking video of her:

He’s so serious:

Abby somehow managed to get a video and a picture of us at the same moment in time:

Bing, bing, bing!

Finally, Little Puffer comes to a stop:

Next, it’s off to the Easter Egg hunt!

Sunday afternoon, post nap for him and basketball game for me, Sawyer and I took a walk over to Mountain Lake Park. I had some bread to feed the birds by the lake, and I brought a ball to kick around in the field. Of course, all Sawyer wanted to do was swing.

I had to drag him over to the field, but once there he had a blast. There isn’t much to see in the video, outside of a handsome little dude showing off his new haircut, but at the very end he makes one of his classic Sawyer sounds:

I have no idea how he does it. I have no inkling of how to spell it. He stopped doing it for a while, but it’s back big time. I couldn’t be happier.

I had to entice him with a bus ride to get him to leave, but not before running circles around this wooden post:

I swear I stood there for a good five minutes. Safe to say he was exhausted by the time we got home. Me too, Sawyer!

After Saturday’s massive bed-head incident, Sawyer woke up with a relatively tame mane today. He looked really handsome too:

This was as still as he would be the rest of the day.

Anyone care for a caption contest? Add yours to the comments.

How appropriate that he began the day with his best bed-head in a really long time. I didn’t bother doing anything about it since he was going to get it cut today. Here he is taking his position in the chair and getting his cape put on:

Pre-cut happiness:

“Where the hair going?”

Awesome.

Sawyer and I needed to find something to do for an hour while Abby had her hair cut. Fortunately there’s a street car and several train lines right out in front. The one I wanted to take was using buses to get around some construction further down the line, so I opted for a different trip underground to West Portal. Sawyer loves tunnels, tracks, and trains, so this was an excellent idea:

Nice haircut, Sawyer!

Not even a minute later, one train came down the tunnel only to be joined by another from the opposite direction. Just look at his smile:

Out train came next. We rode out to West Portal, walked up the street for a bit, then hopped back on the train to go back to meet Abby. He was exhausted by the time we finally got in the car and headed for home.

I have to get video of Sawyer singing the verse of “Wheels on the Bus” I came up with for these situations. It’s hysterical. He’s always liked to sing, but now he’s starting to really string some verses together. That goes for his sentences too. Sawyer is growing up too fast!

It really is difficult to keep him out of the water. He doesn’t listen to reason or care for explanations, and not even 55° water is enough to dissuade him. He just wants to splash around and around, again and again.

Abby always sets up the blanket at the top of the hill, then Sawyer and I venture down to play in the waves. You can see him racing ahead of me at the beginning of this video. I’m not exaggerating, am I?

His shorts are completely soaked, and his sleeves aren’t far behind from far too many falls in the water, but none of that slows him down. You can see he’s still chomping at the bit to go back in. Look at the way he unlocks his shoulders when I lift him up. Sawyer, you little stinker!

Tired, cold, or both, he eventually conceded and let me carry him back up to the car. Pepa T would have been appalled at the all of the sand we tracked into the car.

I love living so close to Baker Beach. Sure, there’s only a handful of days in which it’s really worth going, but they more than make up for the rest. And there’s nothing like the setting, with the Golden Gate Bridge on one side and the vast Pacific Ocean on the other. What a treat!

That’s how he described it tonight over dinner, and that’s exactly what we did. It was a beautiful day today, even kind of warm too, so the three of us went to Baker Beach late this afternoon. Sawyer loves the water, will do anything to escape my grip when near it, tolerates the sand, hates to sit on the blanket, and likes to look for boats and airplanes. It’s a pretty big deal for him.

Beach! Ocean! Sawyer!

The waves were huge, easily six feet or more:

And it was high-tide so I really had to pay close attention:

He could play here all day long:

But it’s good to take breaks with Mama on the blanket:

I love the way he walks in the sand, and since it slows him way down, he’s relatively easy to catch. You can see how long he sits still, what was that all of two seconds?

Here he is with Abby walking back down to the water:

Abby captured an excellent video of me and him in the water, you’ll see just how crazy he really is. Look for that tomorrow. It’s a good one.

Monday mornings mean a trip across town to Mygym. It’s near my office, so Abby and Sawyer always drop me off on the way. For reasons not entirely clear to me now, I sat in the back seat with Sawyer. There’s not a whole lot of room for me back there, but it was fun to bond with my boy for a few extra minutes this morning.

Here we are enjoying the close quarters:

Half way up Geary Street this morning, while stopped at a light, Sawyer looked at a building beside us and said, “Octagons!” Except of course he pronounces it, “ockagons.” Sure enough, the building had five octagons on the front of it. I have never noticed it before, but he sure did.

Here’s a link to it on Google Maps. Can you believe this kid?

When I woke up this morning, I decided to take Sawyer down to the Embarcadero for Sunday streets (the city closes the street down so that people can walk, run, bike, skate, dance, and play where the cars normally are). There were a bunch of kid-friendly things planned for his age group around Fisherman’s Wharf, not normally on my list of places to go unless my brother is in town, but I figured he’d get a kick out of it.

I casually mentioned that he could see some boats this morning, and he emphatically replied, “I wanna get on a boat.” Recall that he did get to board a gigantic boat after his first Soccer Tots class last summer. No doubt he’s not forgotten. So off we went this morning, in search of a boat to board.

He really loved the cable car turn-around from last weekend’s adventure, so I figured he’d like to see it again today. As you’ll soon see, he couldn’t care less:

He and I walked down and out on the Hyde Street Pier. None of the boats looked quite worth the price of admission, so I tried to convince him to walk back with me. He chose instead to sit on what I believe is called a mooring bollard for some time. At least I caught three good pictures of him and the Golden Gate in the background:

Of course, he never sits still for long.

After we left, I noticed a fire engine parked down an alley. We walked all the way around it and then I stepped back to see what he would do with it. With as many times as he’s watched the move Cars, I always think he must be disappointed that these things won’t talk to him. He talks to them!

I’m sure it was quite a conversation.

A short walk later, hoisted on my shoulder of course, we came upon the SS Jeremiah O’Brien. It was built in 1944, in only 57 days, for battle in WWII. It’s one of only two ships that were kept to commemorate this time in our history, and has been restored to its original condition for tours. It’s huge too:

That’s Alcatraz in the distance:

There is a rickety-old staircase that takes you to the main deck of the boat, which made for a somewhat tense beginning to our adventure (holding him in one arm and the railing in the other while trying not to miss a step was unnerving to say the least). Once on board there was nothing but more and steeper steps to climb and descend. I did manage to find the wheel room though, much to his delight at first, then dismay when he learned he couldn’t touch it:

Some great views of the city, Coit Tower, and the Transamerica Pyramid:

Bay Bridge:

And Alcatraz again:

That’s Sutro Tower way off in the distance, with Russian Hill in the foreground:

After a quick lap around the bow, he and I came upon two volunteers, one of whom offered to show us the engine room. We wound our way back into the ship’s quarters, down a flight of stairs, and into the top of the engine room. And that’s when he told me that there were four steep flights of stairs to get to the bottom. By this time Sawyer was ooohhing and aaahhing so I held him and the railing as tightly as I could and made my way to the bottom. I have to admit it was really cool, outside of the heat, smell, claustrophobia, and anxiety of Sawyer getting into something he shouldn’t.

I managed to get one shot of the room:

And another of the pistons:

Neither one was very good, unfortunately.

Our tour guide was somewhat oblivious and kept showing us more things until I finally had to bail on him. I was disappointed not to get more pictures but I did find two really amazing 360° panoramas on the boat’s website. These links are well worth a click. NOTE: you can pan around these images by clicking and dragging your mouse up and down:

• The first one is from the bottom floor, and shows the pistons and gauges on the wall. I know there’s a bunch of more meaningful things happening here, but I can’t remember any of them.
• The second one is from the second floor, and shows two levels of stairs that Sawyer and I had to make it down. That’s the top of the pistons. The boat still sails on this engine just as it did some 60+ years ago.

I was more mentally drained than anything else at this point, so we headed back for the car. Sawyer really liked this bird:

The entire way home, I watched him in the mirror as he fought to stay awake. I know all too well that a five minute power nap in the car leads to no real nap back home, so I had to sing “Wheels on the Bus” to keep him up. It worked and I was able to watch my basketball Buckeyes in peace.

All in all it was a very fun day, I love wearing you out like that, Sawyer!